Step 1: Make Muffins. Step 2: Eat Muffins. Step 3: Run Off Muffin Top.

Rhubarb is one of my favorite foods. It’s tragically under-utilized, and even on the chichi epicurean websites I frequent, there are too few recipes devoted to this wonderful edible. I am always thrilled when I see rhubarb on a restaurant menu (my last visit to Marseille was selfishly timed to coincide with the reappearance of rhubarb and pistachio panna cotta on their dessert list), and even more excited when it shows up unannounced (as at Les Halles with Mom last week, when I was delighted to find chopped rhubarb in our appetizer, Vol-au-vent aux champignons sauvages et salsifis).

I Am, Like, So Totally California

Disclaimer: I STILL have never been to California.  (This may be remedied as soon as July or August, when I am tentatively planning a trip out to the Left Coast.  In my dreams, I fly out to Seattle to visit Jess #1, and then spend an awesome week on a rented motorcycle, driving down the coast towards LA–via Portland and the Northern California redwood forests and the San Francisco Zoo–to visit Jess #2.)  In any case, though, you came here for a quality story based on actual real-life events, not a list of my vague summer plans.  So, onward.

I first read about the existence of date shakes in National Geographic.  They had an illustrated sidebar about regional American food specialties, and I noticed that in addition to a variety of foodstuffs I was intimately familiar with (Beef on Weck, Coffeemilk, Kringle), there were some peculiar delights I had not tried.  One of those was a California treat, the date shake.

I’m not really sure what else besides sitting in front of this pinned-up article for more than eight hours a day inspired me to actually make my own date shake this week, but I decided I had a craving for one.  In fact, I’d never actually eaten a date prior to this week.  Mom would occasionally bake date bread for Grandpa on Father’s Day or his birthday, but I am pretty sure I never ate any of that.*

Based on some half-hearted Googling and a quick search on Seamless Web, I determined that there were really no reliable date shake vendors in NYC (kind of surprising, actually, given how many other California trends seem to get imported).  Instead, the minute I finished up at work, I booked it to Whole Foods to pick up vanilla protein powder (thick and frothy without the saturated fat of ice cream) and dates, which were not available fresh, to my chagrin.  (Not that I would really appreciate the difference at this point… I just heard the fresh ones were good.)  I settled for the dried, pitted variety, billed on the plastic container as “Nature’s Candy.”  This was a promising slogan.

C-C-C-Cinnamon Buns And Candy Kisses, On My Tongue. Fun!

As much as I’m looking forward to the snow, I’m excited that we’re actually getting a season between summer and winter this year.  Today was a perfectly crisp and slightly breezy fall day; just the right kind of day for baking.

I’d been thinking about cinnamon buns ever since I went to Ikea over a week ago, so I finally decided to do something about my craving.  I wanted a very specific kind of cinnamon bun: extra soft and loaded with cinnamon, sweet enough that it didn’t need icing, and more of a roll, really; not some firm hunk of bread coated in sticky glop.

I’m not completely satisfied with the recipe I found, but with some tweaking, it could be a winner.  I would recommend adding somewhere between 2 teaspoons and 4 Tablespoons of cinnamon–the former is far too little, and the latter is a bit extreme (but delicious, if you’re also the kind of person who eats cinnamon straight from the container).  By following the instructions to the letter, I ended up with adorable miniature buns, but I think next time I’ll be making them much larger.

A Little Slice Of Cali… Now In Your Own Kitchen!

I just made my own cholado and it tastes GREAT. Granted, I made mine in a bowl, not a plastic cup, and I swapped the shaved ice for frozen mango (I didn’t want to break out the Cuisinart), but it is pretty damn close to what my local Colombian videostore/dessert stand El Palacio de Cholados serves up.

For you adventurous types, here’s a rough approximation of how to make a cholado at home: